Happy Anniversary

Not only is today Thanksgiving, it's also our wedding anniversary. Thanks for four awesome years, Matt!

Thanksgiving Eve

A few things I'm grateful for this Thanksgiving eve:

1. Matt, for choosing me
2. Skylie
3. Skylie's smile
4. The fact that I get to be a mom
5. Parents who taught me to work, gave me what I needed, and said "no" to my whimsical wants (at least some of them)
6. In-laws that couldn't be better
7. Life-long friends
8. The education I received
9. Knowing I'm a daughter of God and he loves me
10. The tough times that make the good times so much sweeter
11. Stoplights when they're green, and police when they don't catch me speeding
12. Laughing so hard that I cry
13. Amazing women that watch Skylie when I can't
14. Living in the U-S-of-A
15. My health
16. Beauties of nature
17. A good book
18. Lazy Sundays
19. All things sweet
20. Spring, summer, and fall in Des Moines
21. My brothers and sister
22 A generous boss
23. Mizuno running shoes
24. Holidays
25. Fantastic memories

I am truly blessed.

Month Three

Skylie,

This month has been so fun with you. Your grin is adorable—and you're smiling tons! I love it! The facial expressions you make and the noises that come out of you (in more places than one) are hilarious! You've got a spunky personality, and I think you and I are going to be best friends, girl.

This past month you:

• Hit a growth spurt.
• Took the art of smiling up about a hundred notches.
• Learned how to swim, or so it seems.
• Got so close to rolling over. Keep trying, Champ.
• Gave your dad and me a break by sleeping well—for the most part—at night. (8.5 hours is your record.)
• Got obsessed with scooting over to your crib bars and banging your body against them. (It's so funny!)

We love you!

Love,
Mom

A Christmas Tree

Matt finished his psychiatry rotation last Friday and got rave reviews from the doctor he worked with. He was in a pediatric psych hospital, and kids would talk to him that wouldn't speak to the doctor.

To kick off the weekend Matt, Skylie, and I headed to the mall last Friday for the Christmas tree lighting.

• Later we played games with co-workers.
• Saturday Taylor Laurent wowed me during New Moon. Carmike Cinemas, I hope you like the puddle of drool I left on your floor.
• Our church's stake conference was awesome.
• A Christmas tree now graces our apartment.

Have I mentioned I love this time of year? Bring on the holidays!

Skylie's got a crush.

I've mentioned before that Matt and I switch off babysitting with our friends, the Beeston's, so we can have some husband/wife alone time. It's probably bad, but Matt and I look forward to watching Taylor and Logan as much—or more—than going on the dates! It's so fun to watch these three rugrats together!

I watch in awe at how well Nathalie handles twins. Her great attitude and willingness to sacrifice amazes me. Seriously. Those boys are lucky to have such a great mama.

{Nathalie, I'm burning you a CD this minute. I took way too many pics!}

Big Creek State Park

A week ago the weather was gorgeous, so Matt and I took advantage of it and headed up to Big Creek State Park on Saturday afternoon. I love Skylie's facial expressions!

In other happenings:

We:

• Stood in line for three hours to get the HINI vaccination.

Matt:

• Is heading into his final week of his psychiatry rotation. To show Erin what he does all day, he asked her the questions they ask the patients during their admittance exam. It made her think she should be admitted, too. :)
• Is home most days by 3:00 and has graciously taken on most of the cooking around here. Needless to say, we've been eating better.

Erin:

• Totally spaced that she had Veteran's Day off of work and didn't get a clue until she drove into the normally packed parking lot and only a handful of cars were in sight. Sweet surprise!
• Is working on the stake newsletter.
• Is figuring out Blurb so she can transfer our blog into a book.
• Read "The Wednesday Letters".

Skylie:

• Flirts with Logan and Taylor while the moms and dads go on date nights.
• Smiles a lot.

We Quit

We're all quitters in this family. It's one of many things we're united in.

ERIN: Resigned from teaching three fitness classes at DMU.

After working all day and then leaving Skylie for another hour or two so I could teach my classes became a drudgery. It was a tough decision to make, because who doesn't want to get paid to work out? But it's all about putting first things first, right Dr. Covey and President Monson? Besides I can now get my sweating for the day done when the little one's sleeping because...

SKYLIE: Quit waking up in the night!

Thank you Babywise, Miracle Blanket, Skylie, and Matt (he takes the 11:30 p.m. feeding often). Because of you, I went to bed at 9:00 last night and woke up on my own at 5:30 this morning. Meanwhile, an eleven week old baby snoozed in her crib for a couple more hours. I've decided the most beautiful sight is a sleeping baby in the wee hours of the morning.

MATT: Plans to throw in the towel regarding this med school business to pursue his dreams of being the next Ricky Martin.

Kidding! I couldn't really think of anything Matt's quit lately. I thought about trying to be funny by saying something like, "He quit wetting the bed" or "He quit wearing diapers", but I'm no good at potty humor (and he might not appreciate it too much). So instead I'll just tell you what I was going to joke about. That way I get my oh-so-lame wittiness out without risking anything. (It's a tactic I resort to often. Try it. It's fun.)

Skylie's Blessing

Matt gave Skylie her baby blessing a few Sundays ago (October 19) at church. He did a great job and during it Skylie didn't make a peep. Thanks Dads, Alec LaBau, Jacob Pluid, Bishop Jason Giles, Noel Stahle, and Frank Ledbetter for participating in the blessing.

Frank said he peeked at Skylie while Matt gave the blessing. He said the moment Matt started speaking she smiled really big. How cute!

Skylie was blessed that she'll:
-Feel loved by her earthly and heavenly parents

-Be physically fit

-Marry in the temple and continue on in an eternal family

-Exercise good judgement

-Make righteous decisions

Blessing dress made by my mom, Grandma Zane:

Skylie at Two Months

What happened to my newborn baby girl?

Photos courtesy JC Penny Portrait Studios

Thanks to coupons, we in went for two photo sessions and ended up with seven good pictures. They might not have appreciated seeing us two days in a row—especially since we only spent $12 total, but we were happy to get them.

Photos taken October 22 and 23

Tending Secret Gardens

“Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”

~Sarah Ban Breathnach, in John Cook, comp., The Book of Positive Quotations, 2nd ed. (2007), 342.

(Quoted by President Thomas S. Monson, “Finding Joy in the Journey,” Ensign, Nov. 2008, 84–87.)

Happy Halloween!

We've celebrated Halloween for over a week. Ah, it's been nice! But now the week's over and we should be on detox mode from the sugar overload. (Should is the key word, here.)



Side note: Here in Iowa the kids go trick-or-treating on what is called Beggar's Night. Beggar's Night is usually Halloween eve. Anyway, at the mall we felt too ashamed to take any candy since Skylie is obviously too young to eat it. Next year will be perfect. She'll be old enough to look like she could eat candy--but being the responsible person that I am--I'll have to spare her the agony and eat all her candy myself.

Happy Halloween!